Update On Our The Sell Of Our House: We Have A Buyer

Here is an update on the selling of our house.

We ended up with 16 showings over the five days our house was on the market. We had 11 groups at our Saturday open house and seven groups at our Sunday open house.  We ended up with five total offers on our house, all above our asking price. Yeah!

Instead of accepting one of the offers, we met with our realtor Sunday night and decided to make five counter offers to see who is really serious about buying our house and who is willing to stick with us and not buckle if the appraisal doesn't come in at the value of the offer.  It is an idea my realtor had that she saw work recently....so....why not.

Of the five offers:

• The lowest was $160,000 and the highest was $163,000
• One asked for us to pay closing costs
• Two were offering to pay for the appraisal, which would save us $500
• One is offering to pay an additional $500 over the top offer, however, he didn't offer to pay the appraisal which would cost us $500 and basically is just a wash
• All buyers want an inspection completed
• The closing date will either be the first or second week of May

So, here was our counter offer to all five buyers:

• We increased the purchase price to $164,000
• We asked for the buyer to pay all closing costs
• We asked for the buyer to pay for the appraisal
• We are asking for no inspection

Upon the suggestion from our realtor, we decided to hand over the inspection that was done on our house in early March from our other potential buyer.  This way we lay our cards on the table right away and wouldn't risk losing our only buyer to the inspection results like last time.  The inspection did list there could be possibly be mold in the attic and so we knew it could be a risky move. Our realtor was able to get her mold guy out to take a look before we sent over the counter offers and he confirmed it was NOT MOLD. Yeah! That was fantastic news!!!   We also had made notes on the inspection of everything we have fixed since the inspection was completed, such as the outside siding and replacing an outlet cover.

Our risky move paid off and we had two of our five buyers who wanted to purchase our house. One of the offers accepted all of our terms and asked for the fridge and the microwave to be included. We knew he would be our most aggressive buyer as he had an escalation clause already part of his current offer and he was willing to go above our highest offer by $500. We also knew he wanted to fridge and microwave and we really don't mind selling it. Our other offer was still interested but she didn't want to increase her purchase price offer since our inspection report shows the roof will mostly likely need replaced at some point in the future. She was also still requesting to have her own inspection done on the home and she was't willing to pay the appraisal costs.

The clear winner was our first counter offer received as he was accepting all our terms. So, on Monday evening we sent over the signed contract and on Tuesday he accepted the offer. WhoooHooo! Late late night we got an email for our realtor that the other buyer is still interested in the house and asked to be a back-up offer if for some reason our buyer decides to terminate the contract. She has agreed to meet us at our counter purchase price offer but she is still wanting her own inspection and is still requesting we pay the appraisal fee. She assures us she will not ask us to replace the roof. We have accepted her back-up offer and signed the contract. It never hurts to have a back-up plan.

 

Since our current buyer waved the inspection contingency, we now move into the appraisal phase. This means even more waiting. Thankfully we get to be normal again in our house and not have to store of stuff every morning as we might have a showing that day. What a relief! In a couple of weeks I'll get out to my parents house to get the rooms organized that we plan to move into. We are looking to move out of our house on April 30^th unless something else changes.

Boy this house selling stuff is harder than the house buying stuff. I am glad we went with a CBH new build so we didn't have to stress trying to buy a house in this crazy sellers market. The inventory is just so low that four of the people that offered on our house are still without a new house. I hope they can find something soon.